Dexter's Darkest Dream
by TheElectricPoet
Summary: Two months...and no feedback. I guess no one enjoyed this but me.


Finally. It feels as though I've been dragging my tired legs through endless hours of blinding daylight. My head is spinning from the constant cries and manic outbursts in this madhouse. But the noise is behind me now, along with my mask that hides me from the sunshine. Finally, I'm within the shadowed moonlight, where my passenger and I can work, and dance. I am already in position, waiting for the dark whisper that will tell me when the time is just right. Everything has been neatly prepared. The choice was made carefully, my research was solid, and the clean room is ready. Now I've made my silent approach, and the precious moments this woman has left are fading. She certainly deserves my visit, narrowly eluding local law enforcement for some time, while playing night games with a companion of her own. She had seduced men into her arms, and then ultimately into a deep chemically enhanced sleep. She would then wrap the men in heavy chains and drop them off the pier, into the ocean, while they were still breathing. She had done this to two men before, and has been making her way into the confidence of a third already. She would have repeated the daunting nightly activity once again, if I had not been in position, waiting in the darkness, prepared and ready. As she made her way to the rear entrance of her home, and fumbled for her keys, the whisper from within suggested, "Now." As always, I agreed. The moment is now. I snuck in from behind her, syringe in hand, as I have so many times before. But this time, something's different. Suddenly the woman turns around to face me. She looks dead into my eyes and her steady stare reaches deeper inside of me then I've ever felt before. My passenger and I stare back. Everything within us freezes for just a moment, and the woman's face comes into focus. It's Rita! With only the slightest hesitation, and without breaking our stare, I move in and plunge the needle into her neck. Our stare slowly subsides as her eyes roll into her head and she collapses into my arms.

The bright light above Rita must have worked it's way through her softly closed eyelids, and with a little flicker, they finally opened. I've been a witness to this moment many times before. I would usually sit and wait for it. The eyes are still recovering from their time spent in dark dreamland, and they pause to stare into the light for just a moment, then they jump into action when they realize their very real situation that I've created for them. Again I'm sitting in this very familiar position, but this time I'm looking into very familiar eyes. And to my surprise, there was no moment of unclarity, and no hesitation as Rita looked directly at me. There was no confusion, and no fear what so ever. She had no expression at all. I, on the other hand, was dizzy with confusion.

"What are you doing here?" I managed to say.

Of course, I was not really expecting an answer, since her mouth is sealed shut with heavy duty industrial tape. Considering that she was unnervingly calm, I walked up to her and removed the tape from her mouth.

"You brought me here," she said.

"But why?" I asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that Dexter?" she replied.

"You killed two men." I weakly responded, knowing that it couldn't be true.

"No, I didn't. I tried to protect them."

"You mean, you tried to change them. I'm not like them, you can't change me," I said.

"Looks like you've answered your own question then," she replied. "But you're wrong, this isn't the way. I can still protect you."

"You don't even know me. This is the first time we've actually met. No one can really know me, unless they're laying on that table. But..."

"Yes Dexter?"

"You aren't afraid," I said.

"Why should I be afraid? I haven't killed anyone. So you're not going to kill me," she continued to stare into my eyes, "Harry wouldn't approve."

I stood absolutely still with her comment, but my dark companion within me flinched, and I felt it's black wings flutter inside of me.

"What can you know about that?," I asked. Again, not expecting an answer.

Although Rita did not answer, a different voice did.

"She knows nothing about that Dex," Harry said, now standing across the table from me. "Not yet. But how long can that really last? It's just a matter of time until she sees you standing here with that scalpel in your hand, waiting to add her to your slide collection."

"Never. That will never happen," I said.

"What other choice do you have?" He asked. "You gonna wait until she finds out another way? Are you waiting for her to change you, cause that's not going to happen. You can't change Dexter."

I didn't want to listen, so I switched my attention to Rita, who was still laying on the table and staring at me.

"Come on, let me out of here." she said. "Let's go home. The kids are waiting for us."

"I..." I stumbled trying to respond.

"You don't have to go back Dex. This can end now." Harry said.

"But what about the code?" I replied.

"Rule number 1, Don't get caught. You can't keep the mask on forever. She will see you." Harry said.

"But, she really cares about me, she makes me care about her." I said.

"No Dexter," Harry exclaimed, "She doesn't care about the real you, about the monster. She only cares about the person you pretend to be. You can't care for her, or for the children. Not like others can."

"Come on honey, let's go home." Rita said.

My head was swelling and the room began to slowly spin. I felt her eyes staring right through me, as well as Harry's gaze, staring down upon me. I heard a voice screaming from some distant chamber within myself. The dark passenger was making it all very clear from inside. Harry was right, I've gotten too close. This was my chance to free myself from the confines of my mask, which is now almost permanently attached to my skin. I turned to the table behind me and put down my scalpel, to pick up my stainless steel hunter's knife. Rita's face finally held an expression, and it was the one I've grown used to. Fear.

"No Dexter, don't do it! Harry's wrong!"

But I knew, and the passenger knew, Harry was not wrong. He had trained us both well. I lifted the knife above Rita's chest with two hands, and waited for the final word from within. My passenger was screaming from inside me, and now Rita was screaming as well. The noise was getting louder and louder, and I knew with absolute certainty, the moment was now. The edge of my blade dove through the moonlit night and deafening screams, plunging itself directly into Rita's chest. The blade was met with an awful squirt of messy sticky red blood that splashed directly into my face. I looked towards Harry for his approval, but he was gone. I looked back to Rita to find my knife buried half way into an empty wooden table. But the screaming continued. Suddenly, I opened my eyes to find Rita laying on the bed beside me. Harrison was screaming his heart out from the other room. Rita opened her eyes and sprung to her feet.

"I got it, go back to bed," she said, and hurried out of the room.

I turned to face the ceiling with my eyes wide open. A harsh chill raced through my body as I lied there, in the damp sheets of my otherwise comfy bed.


End file.
